Prosecutors say have turned over evidence in case of ex-NFLer Hernandez

[August 15, 2014]  By Scott Malone
 
 BOSTON (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Boston said on Thursday that they had handed over all the evidence required by attorneys for former National Football League star Aaron Hernandez ahead of his upcoming trial on charges of gunning down two Cape Verdean men in 2012.

"All mandatory discovery has been turned over to the court," said Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Haggan during a brief hearing at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

Hernandez in May pleaded not guilty to fatally shooting Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado, neither of whom he knew, outside a Boston nightclub after one of the men accidentally spilled a drink on him.

It is one of two murder trials the former New England Patriots tight end is facing, having been arrested in June 2013 and charged with shooting dead semiprofessional football player Odin Lloyd near Hernandez' home in North Attleborough, Massachusetts.

Hernandez, who last month was moved from a jail in southern Massachusetts to a Boston facility at his attorneys' request, was not present at Thursday's hearing.

Hernandez was dropped by the Patriots hours after his arrest on charges of murdering Lloyd.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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